Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers with a poor prognosis. Though studies have implicated the roles of microRNAs in pancreatic cancer progression, little is known about the role of miR-613 in pancreatic cancer. In the present study, the expression of miR-613 was down-regulated in pancreatic cancer tissues and cancer cell lines. Down-regulation of miR-613 was positively correlated with tumor differentiation, advanced TNM stage, nodal metastasis and shorter overall survival in patients with pancreatic cancer. Overexpression of miR-613 suppressed cell proliferation, invasion and migration, and induced cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase in pancreatic cancer cells. Bioinformatics analysis, luciferase reporter assay and rescue experiments showed that notch3 was a direct target of miR-613. MiR-613 was inversely correlated with notch3 expression in pancreatic cancer tissues. The long non-coding RNA, HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) was up-regulated in both pancreatic cancer tissues and cancer cell lines, and HOTAIR suppressed the expression of miR-613 via functioning as a competing endogenous RNA. In vivo studies showed that stable overexpression of miR-613 or knock-down of HOTAIR suppressed tumor growth and also reduced the expression of notch3. In conclusion, these results suggest that HOTAIR functions as a competing endogenous RNA to regulate notch3 expression via sponging miR-613 in pancreatic cancer.

This paper proposes the preparation and formula analysis of anti-biofouling Titania–polyurea (TiO2–SPUA) spray coating, which uses nano-scale antibacterial and photocatalytic agents, titanium dioxide, to construct regularly hydrophobic surface texture on the polyurea coating system. Through formulating analysis of anti-biofouling performance, it is found the causal factors include antibacterial TiO2, surface wettability and morphology in order of their importance. The most optimized formula group is able to obtain uniform surface textures, high contact angle (91.5°), low surface energy (32.5 mJ/m2), and strong hardness (74 A). Moreover, this newly fabricated coating can effectively prevent Pseudomonas aeruginosa and biofilm from enriching on the surface, and there is no toxins release from the coating itself, which makes it eco-friendly, even after long-time exposure. These studies provide insights to the relative importance of physiochemical properties of Titania–polyurea spray coatings for further use in marine, as well as bio medical engineering.

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Improving the penetration efficiency of missiles into concrete is a practical research topic. In this paper, a tubular projectile was designed to enhance penetration diameter on concrete targets. To validate numerical simulation methods, an experiment of an ogive-nosed projectile penetrating a semi-infinite concrete target was reproduced by numerical simulation. Based on the validated numerical model, the penetration progress of a tubular projectile into a semi-infinite concrete target was analyzed. By assessing the penetration tunnel diameter and depth, the effects of key parameters, i.e., the wall thickness (15.0, 30.0, 60.0, 90.0, 120.0 mm) and velocity (400.0, 600.0, 800.0, 1000.0, 1200.0, 1400.0 m/s) of tubular projectile on penetrating concrete targets have been investigated in detail. Furthermore, the penetration performances of flat-nosed projectiles and tubular projectiles on concrete targets with the same mass were compared. The results indicate that with the increase in the wall thickness and velocity of the tubular projectiles, the penetration depth of the projectiles into the concrete target increases gradually, and the increase in the diameter of the tunnel is not obvious. In the case of the wall thickness of the tubular projectile which is greater than or equal to 30.0 mm, the concrete core, near the head of the tubular projectile, is completely fractured and separated from the concrete target. When the flat-nosed projectiles have the same mass and length with tubular projectiles, the diameter of the tunnel caused by the tubular projectile on the concrete targets is always much larger than that caused by the flat-nosed projectiles. The difference of them can be 60.5%. In the condition that the flat-nosed projectiles have the same mass and diameter with tubular projectiles, the depth of the tunnels caused by tubular projectiles in the concrete targets is always much larger than that caused by flat-nosed projectiles. The difference of them can be 95.6%.

Effects of hardness and toughness of ceramic in a ceramic armour module against long rod impacts. Proceeding of the 42nd International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites: Ceramic Engineering and

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